ProCharger's New Blower Kit - Boosted Rocket

ProCharger's C6 Blower Package Is Ready For Blastoff

As it does with all of its Corvette-specific packages, ProCharger designed the C6 kit around the realization that irreversible modifications to the factory hardware are anathema to most Vette owners and should therefore be kept to an absolute minimum. According to Engineer Dorian Comeau, the finished product cleaves to that design goal, requiring that only one easily replaced coolant line be cut to complete the installation.

So the kit installs cleanly and uses proven technology, but how does it perform? Equipped with a modest 6-psi pulley, our test car's output jumped from a preternaturally healthy 373 hp in stock form to a downright spooky 523. Allowing for a 15 percent loss through the Vette's six-speed manual drivetrain, we can estimate that the ProCharged C6 is spinning up just over 615 horses at the flywheel.

Although a compressed test schedule didn't allow for drag testing this time around, we did have a chance to sample the ProCharged C6 on the highways and shunpikes around the company's suburban Kansas City headquarters. Compared with the blown Z06 we tested a few months back, the new car feels nearly as fast and is several furlongs ahead in terms of ride comfort, exhaust noise, and overall cush factor.

Low-speed roll-ons in Second gear will still send the car's tail slewing for the guardrail, but the overall impression is of a vehicle whose charms won't wear thin in the multifarious driving environments these cars typically face. Indeed, it's not difficult to imagine squiring this stylish all-rounder on a 1,000-mile interstate jaunt, then ducking into the local dragstrip for an ego-burnishing evening of Mustang mauling and Viper vivisection.

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ProCharger's New Blower Kit - Boosted Rocket

With access to a lift and a variety of impressive-looking tools,ProCharger project engineers Nick Jensen (left) and Dorian Comeau neededonly a couple of hours to install the complete kit. Here, they begin thejob by loosening and removing the factory airbox. Note the stylish,color-keyed fender aprons.

ProCharger strongly recommends pinning the crank damper on anysupercharged LS-series engine, and the C6 kit includes the hardwarerequired to do the job.

Jensen and Comeau lower the P-1SC head unit into place in the C6's engine bay. This is the same self-contained unit ProCharger uses in virtually all of its street-oriented C4, C5, and C6 Corvette packages. Note the large-diameter, 6-psi pulley.

Because the LS2 uses a revised fuel-injector design, the 42-pound units included with the ProCharger kit are equipped with custom harnesses to ensure compatibility.

Unlike the Stage II C5 kit, which includes an all-new, rear-tilted radiator cradle, the C6 package employs a set of billet- aluminum spacers to achieve proper radiator orientation using the factory cradle.

Thanks to the relatively generous dimensions of the C6 engine bay, project engineers were able to specify a card-table-sized, 27x3.5-inch front-mounted intercooler for the new kit--the largest such unit ever fitted to a regular- production ProCharger system. In addition to looking unbearably cool, the FMIC is slightly more efficient than the twin units used on the more tightly packaged C5 engines. Removing the front clip eases installation but isn't required.

The included anti-surge valve uses a filter to reduce the high-pitched "pop-hiss" common to aftermarket blow-off valves.

Cleanly packaged and gleaming in the midday sun, the finished installation looks as if it might have been performed on the line at Bowling Green. ProCharger also offers a "Tuner" version, minus injectors and tuning, for folks who prefer to concoct their own individualized setup.

Early packages will ship with a coupon good for application-specific Ed Wright tuning on an exchange basis. Later kits will include a DiabloSport handheld tuner loaded with a custom program.

With the 6-psi blower kit in place, horsepower shot to 523--an improvement of just over 40 percent. Torque, meanwhile, was up to 456 lb-ft. Plugging these numbers into the VETTE mainframe, we find that the ProCharger C6 should be good for mid-11s at between 120 and 125 mph.

One of the company's more ambitious projects involved customizing an '05 Escalade for Sony. A rolling showcase for the consumer-electronics titan's latest wares, the 'Slade was jammed to the gunwales with high-end audio and video gear.